Huys, 404 Park Avenue South: Review and Ratings

Review of 404 Park Avenue South by Carter Horsley

This residential conversion of a 17-story mid-rise commercial building at 404 Park Avenue South on the southwest corner at 28^th Street is a distinguished transformation of an ugly duckling into a pretty cool swan.

The design by Piet Boon applies a variety of fenestration approaches that have rarely been applied to a complete building and even incorporates some of its multi-paned aesthetics to some of its interior walls.

The developer is the Kroonenberg Group of which Lesley Bamberger is the chief executive.  The group and its architect are Dutch as is its landscape architect, Piet Oudolf, who worked on the High Line Elevated Park in Chelsea.

The building, which was erected in 1917, is scheduled for completion in 2014 and has 58 condominium apartments.

Bottom Line

Take a drab commercial building and sprinkle it with Dutch designer dust and, presto, you have dazzle especially when it is squeezed between the dramatic, prismatic new residential tower across 28^th Street at 400 Park Avenue South and just to the south of the very hopping and colorful Gansevoort Hotel at 420 Park Avenue South.

Description

With its three-story stone base and beige-brick façades, this pre-war building was virtually indistinguishable from thousands of industrial properties.

By enlarging its windows and protruding some of them, recessing others and keeping some flush and converting them all to multipaned fenestration, the architect has performed a very elegant façade “touch-up” and sophisticated make-over.

The protruding windows complement some of the protruding façade elements of the adjoining Gansevoort Park Hotel, which was designed by Stephen B. Jacobs.

The building has three bandcourses and a handsome cornice with cartouches.

It has an entrance marquee and its vestibule doors are handsomely divided into numerous panes.

Amenities

The building has a concierge, a doorman, an on-site resident manager, a roof deck, a bicycle room, a children’s playroom, cold storage, a fitness center and a laundry.

Apartments

Penthouses have 8-inch-wide oak plant floors, paneled interior doors by Mr. Boon for Bod’or, loft style ceilings with original architectural beams and electronically controlled solar shades with concealed window shade pockets.

Kitchens have Bulthaup  Alpine white lacquer cabinetry with Miele appliances and a full-height wine refrigerator.

Bathrooms have Chambolle stone slab flooring and wall tiles in signature Poco Veccio finish, radiant heated floors by NuHeat, and a six-foot Kaldewei deep soaking tub.

Penthouse 17B is a four-bedroom duplex with 3,022 square feet and a 877-square-foot roof terrace with a hot tub, a wood-burning fireplace, a covered barbecue and an outdoor kitchen.  It has 13-foot-ceilings and a four-step-up, broad entrance to its terrace.

Penthouse 17A is a three-bedroom unit with 2,983 square feet of interior space and 139 square feet of external space. A 42-foot-long living/dining room with a gas fireplace, a 13-foot-wide open kitchen with an island and two loggias.

Penthouse 15B is a three-bedroom unit with 2,426 square feet and an 86-square-foot loggia, a 23-foot-wide living room with an gas fireplace, a 17-foot-wide corner dining room adjacent to a 14-foot-long open kitchen with an island that also opens to a 11-foot-long family room.

Apartments have 11-1/2 foot-high ceilings with expressed original beams and custom millwork, and wide plank oaks floors, and built-in window seats.

Apartment 11A is a two-bedroom unit with 1,690 square feet and an entry foyer that leads to a 20-foot-wide living room with a dining alcove and an open kitchen.

Apartment 7C is a three-bedroom unit with 2,180 square feet and an entry foyer that leads to a 13-foot-wide dining area with an open kitchen with an island and a 19-foot-long living room with a Juliet balcony.

Apartment 11E is a one-bedroom unit with 798 square feet and a 13-foot-long living room with an open kitchen with an island.

History

Huys derives from Stadt Huys, Old Dutch for City Hall and the city’s first Stadt Huys was built in 1642 by William Kieft, the Director-General of Nieuw Nederland (New Netherlands).

The project’s website includes a reproduction of a great interior painting of two people by a window by Vermeer and notes that “the combination of unique geography and flat topography in the Netherlands gives the country its extraordinary, world-famous light.